Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism and the Cold War - Essay Example

In the first place involving the First and Second World War, there were visions of Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and Imperialism in Japan. These visions greatly contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War (Gaddis, 1990). These three political visions: Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism had some kind of widespread similarities and as well some differences. Fascism is a dictatorial or totalitarian political ideology entirely connected with a mass movement that refers the person secondary to the interests of the nation, party or general public in general.

Fascists look forward to attaining national unity, in most instances founded on however, not restricted to national, cultural, tribal, religious factors (Gaddis, 1990). Scholars characterize diverse features to fascism, however the following factors are in most cases regarded as fundamental: loyalty, nationalism, socialization, militarism, totalitarianism and anti-communism, corporatism, populism, despotism and resistance to political and economic laissez-faire. Nazism also known as National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus) is an ideology and system linked to the 20th century German Nazi Party and nation.

Nazism is characterized as a way of fascism that entails natural racism and anti Semitism (De Grand, 2004). Nazism primarily originates from the influence of Pan Germanism, the Volkisch German nationalists association and the anti communist Freikorps paramilitary tradition in post First World War Germany that a large number of people in Germany thought that they had been disgraced by the Treaty of Versailles (De Grand, 2004). In this regard, Nazism is directly similar to Fascism in all actions and practices.

Imperialism is distinguished as a code of conduct in relation to the mindset of an individual (Heller, 2006). It is comprehended in connection with Empire construction, as the forceful boundary of a country’s power by protective conquest setting up the economic and political command of other countries. Imperialism further implies to the mind-set of dominance, subordination and authority over foreign nationals (Heller, 2006). Over and above, this is the mindset of an individual or a group of people that create a kingdom, with ideologies of “global dominance”.

There are a couple of similarities in Fascism, Nazism and Imperialism that led to the war and further agitating their allies (Britain, France, U.S. and Soviet Union). In the first place, these political systems are dictatorial, as clearly indicated by the control over all features of life and in every nation. Furthermore, the economic activities were under the command of the government and everyone had to comply with the set rules. In conclusion, these systems employed the expansionists and aggressive foreign policies.

The Nazi, Fascists and the imperialists believed in unavoidable war and territorial expansion which agitated their allies (De Grand, 2004). This was due to the fact that, Italy, Japan and Germany posed serious territorial, economic, social and political threats (cold war) to their allies by use of these ideologies (De Grand, 2004). Option Three “Blame” It is clear that the topic of who caused the cold war is based on a blame game where various scholars especially from America and Britain indicate that Russia led to the Cold war whereas other scholars believe it was caused by America (Fedorov, 2011).

In actual fact, Cold War was caused by America. Fedorov (2011) blamed the United States of America for the cold war, counting to the list of revisionists who believed that America led to the cold war. It is for the duration of the Vietnam War that people established that America was as bad as Russia. In the long run, America was the